10 Quick Questions with the Paper Scissors

Sydney’s the Paper Scissors are all geared up to release their sophomore album In Loving Memory and an east coast tour to support its launch. Drummer Ivan Lisyak sat down to discuss line up changes and how the band has grown over the past couple of years.

What are some things we can expect from your upcoming album In Loving Memory?

I suppose you can expect a pretty massive sounding album, with three guys sweating it out on record. In all seriousness, I think it will surprise some people, we’ve grown up a lot with this record, and compared to the last album, Less Talk More Paper Scissors – at bit of it was ‘skippable’ or I guess rushed to fill an album, In Loving Memory does not have the same issue, I hope!

How did the writing and recording process differ for this album than to your debut?

A few things have changed since the last album, I joined the group just after the tail end of the last album tour to complete drummer duties; At the time, I was a founding member of Belles Will Ring and knew Bryce (TPS’s old drummer) quiet well, he decided to leave, and Bryce asked me if I was interested in filling in for a while. That was nearly four years ago now; I decided to commit more time to TPS so I left BWR. We also are now a three piece whereby with the last album we were four, we had to ask our old guitarist to leave, as we were changing directions, and his playing didn’t fit musically with what we were doing… Recording changed approach as we recorded nearly the whole thing ourselves… the last album was mostly done in Jai’s Fathers’ studio in Byron Bay called Fracas Music. We did end up doing some of the album up there; the majority of the recordings were scrapped, except one song, ‘On Your Hand’, and redone in bedrooms where we felt more comfortable.

How has travelling over the past year inspired you to write?

To be honest, as a collective, we don’t travel that much, except for this large island of ours; I’ve been to Japan, Jai had a short stint in USA for a little while & he came back with the bare bones of one of the songs for In Loving Memory, ‘Dozens’. This was one of the first songs we wrote for the album, and really steered the vibe of the whole thing.

Who have been your main musical influences in forming the sound of the band?

We’re a bit of a hodge-podge kind of a group, and we tend to have a lot of influences, ranging from soul & RnB like the Meters; TV on The Radio; Talking Heads, James Chance (Contortions); Outkast; Early Detroit Techno like Derrick May, UA. We’re also interested in new music, we tend to not look to the past too, we’re really digging The Weeknd, How to Dress Well, Clams Casino, collarbones and James Blake.

How did you think the band has grown since the earlier recordings circa 2006?

The song writing is definitely more mature, we’re contributing more as a group where as before all the songs were penned by Jai, I have also taken producer/ engineer duties on, and we all have a large say in the development of the band… With this album we really wanted to get away from the stigma attached to that bloody cowbell/ woodblock song that a lot of people would remember as the only song we have…

The Paper Scissors have been very busy over the last couple of years – do you guys actually take any time off? What do you do between recording and touring?

On the contrary it may appear that we’ve been busy, but we have a lot of down time… So what do we do in that time? Jai works on his other project, Pork Pies, he also works with ‘Sydney Creatives’ on other projects; I moonlight in other bands like The Philadelphia Grand Jury, I played their album launch The National Philly Jay day, for instance. I sometimes fill in with Deep Sea Arcade as well from time to time; I produce hip hop with a friend of mine, HERB, he has a new single out called ‘Conversation WAR’ which I wrote the beat, mixed, and produced; I also am involved in the Sydney noise scene and have played at various galleries and warehouse spaces in Sydney and Melbourne; Xavier spends his downtime fighting with his virus riddled windows laptop, he likes to spend time with friends and family in Goulbourn & Byron Bay, he has been writing songs recently as well.

What can the uninitiated expect from a live Paper Scissors show?

We’re a pretty loud and punchy band so you can expect a lot of volume, a lot of the new tunes are a little challenging, but have their roots in music that is danceable, a little sweaty, and ultimately enjoyable…

What has been your favourite memory from playing in Brisbane?

We have some good memories of playing Brisbane, the T-T-Time tour @ the Troubadour (RIP) was pretty good; with all the Little Scout crew (who supported us on the tour) bum rushing the stage and joining in- it became a percussion circus in no time! Also when we co- headlined with Bluejuice a few years back, we played the Step Inn, the venue didn’t have air-con turned on; the place was just a heaving mess of sweaty bodies, it was pretty insane.

What has been the highlight of the band’s career so far?

Just being fortunate enough to be able to travel the country and play to people… I think a highlight was playing the Falls Festival the first time in the big tent, the place was full of people and you could here the crowd singing along to some of the older tunes (like that bloody cowbell/ woodblock song) it was pretty surreal. I wish that happed all the time with all our songs! Maybe one day…

What does the rest of the year hold for the Paper Scissors?

We’ll be planning a bigger tour to the one we’re going on soon where we travel to Perth, we just couldn’t afford it this time around as the travel expenses are coming from our own pockets. Then I think the grand plan is to go overseas next year somehow. We’re also working on new material as In Loving Memory took a long time to come out.